Olympic village worker died

From cardiac arrest during lightning storm, A crane operator who was said to have died after falling from a crane at the Olympic village in extreme weather yesterday actually died of natural causes, Scotland Yard have confirmed.

The man, in his 60s, was said to have suffered severe head injuries after he slipped while climbing down a ladder as the east London site was engulfed in torrential rain and lightning.

However a post-mortem examination revealed he suffered a fatal cardiac arrest, meaning no further action will be taken by Health and Safety Executive investigators as it is not a work-related death, a HSE spokesman said.

His body was found slumped in the crane’s stairwell. It was the second fatality among workers building the Olympic facilities after another had a non-work-related heart attack in 2009.

A London Ambulance Service spokesman added: 'We were called just after 2.30pm to Leyton Road, Stratford, where a man in a crane was in cardiac arrest and had stopped breathing.

'We sent three ambulance crews, a single responder in a car, and a doctor from the air ambulance, who went in a car.

'Sadly, the patient was pronounced dead by the doctor.'